Job Title: Data Insights and Statutory Returns Officer
Company: William College
Location: Onsite, Stratford, UK
Employment Type: Full-Time, On Campus (Monday to Friday)
Salary: £35,000 - £41,000 (Depending on experience and qualifications)
Reports to: Registry, Data and Compliance Manager
Department: Registry, Data and Compliance
About the Role:
The Data Insights and Statutory Returns Officer is the College's analytical capability and the owner of the controls that keep its data reliable. The postholder builds and runs exception reporting across the College's systems, analyses student, staff and institutional data, produces the insight and regulatory reporting that reaches managers, committees and the Board, and prepares the College to make its own statutory returns directly.
The role also holds day-to-day responsibility for data protection practice across the College, ensuring that personal data is handled lawfully and that staff understand their obligations.
Responsibilities:
- Design, build, maintain and run exception reports across the College's systems, departments and functions, covering student, staff and institutional data.
- Serve as a member of the Data Action Working Group, supporting coordination of retention and B3 interventions and the escalation of risk.
- Carry out periodic reconciliation of College data against source records and against partner university records, to identify systematic or definitional error that exception reporting will not detect because the records are internally valid.
- Maintain the College's data dictionary and definitions, so that continuation, withdrawal, transfer, active student, submission and related terms are calculated consistently across every department and report.
- Provide the evidence of data quality checks that supports sign-off of returns by the Accountable Officer.
- Support strategic oversight and implementation of the College's Data Strategy.
- Analyse large and complex datasets from multiple sources, including the College's student record system, the VLE, partner university systems and departmental records.
- Identify trends, patterns, gaps and emerging risks in the data, and bring them to attention proactively.
- Develop and document analysis requirements through structured engagement with departmental managers.
- Build and maintain interactive dashboards and visualisations, including the B3 dashboard tracking continuation, engagement, attendance and submission indicators.
- Support the development, validation and ongoing monitoring of predictive and early-warning models used to identify students at risk, including assessment of their accuracy and fairness across student characteristics.
- Conduct ad hoc analysis in response to specific questions from managers, committees or partner universities.
- Develop the College's capability to make statutory returns directly, working to the timetable set by its registration position.
- Maintain strong working knowledge of the requirements of the HESA student record, including the data model, coding manual and the in-year collection model under Data Futures, together with Graduate Outcomes, the NSS and OfS data requirements.
- Map the College's data against return specifications, identify what is not currently collected, coded or derived, and work with departments and system owners to close those gaps.
- Support the specification, selection and implementation of the College's planned higher education student records system, ensuring it is capable of producing compliant returns.
- Produce regulatory analysis against the OfS B conditions, in particular continuation, completion and progression against the B3 numerical thresholds, using OfS definitions and technical guidance.
- Support the College's obligations under conditions F3 and F4, post registration.
- Alert promptly where a data matter may constitute a reportable event under the College's Reportable Events Policy.
- Track and report the College's institutional KPI framework, including performance against internal early-warning thresholds set above the OfS numerical thresholds, using red, amber and green status.
- Work with departmental managers to develop their use of data and their confidence in interpreting it.
- Monitor compliance with data protection law, the College's policies and its data governance procedures.
- Maintain the Record of Processing Activities and keep it current as processing changes.
- Support the completion and review of Data Protection Impact Assessments, particularly for new systems, analytics and any processing involving profiling or automated decision-making.
- Manage data subject rights requests, including subject access requests, within statutory deadlines.
- Maintain the College's retention schedule and ensure retention, archiving and secure disposal are implemented and reviewed.
- Advise on data sharing with partner universities, other third parties, including controller and processor determination, data sharing agreements and international transfers.
- Deliver guidance and awareness training to staff on data protection and secure handling, and monitor completion.
- Act as the College's designated Data Protection Officer in accordance with Articles 37 to 39 of the UK GDPR.
- Advise the College and its staff on data protection obligations and good practice under the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018.
- Contribute to the wider work of Professional Services and to cross-College projects requiring analytical input.
- Undertake other duties commensurate with the grade and purpose of the post, as may reasonably be requested by the line manager.
Education and Qualifications:
- Bachelor’s degree in a numerate, analytical or information discipline, or an equivalent professional qualification or demonstrable equivalent experience.
Experience & Knowledge:
Essential
- At least two years' experience in data analysis, management information reporting or a closely related field
- Experience of working with large, complex datasets drawn from multiple systems, including joining and reconciling sources that do not agree.
- Understanding of the OfS regulatory framework, particularly the B3 student outcome measures and how continuation, completion and progression are defined and calculated.
- Strong working knowledge of the HESA student record, including its data model, coding requirements and the in-year collection model under Data Futures.
- Working knowledge of the NSS and Graduate Outcomes, including populations, eligibility, timing and how results are used.
- Working knowledge of the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018, and of practical compliance activity such as ROPA maintenance, DPIAs, subject access requests and breach handling
- Strong proficiency in Excel and in a data visualisation platform such as Power BI or Tableau.
- Working knowledge of SQL, or equivalent ability to query and transform data independently of a reporting layer.
- Ability to maintain confidentiality and handle personal and sensitive data with professionalism
- High level of accuracy, attention to detail and demonstrable commitment to data integrity.
Desirable
- Experience in the UK higher education sector, particularly in a planning, insight, registry or compliance function.
- Hands-on experience of preparing, validating or submitting a live HESA student return.
- Familiarity with student record systems, particularly SIMS or SITS.
- Working knowledge of R or Python.
- Formal data protection qualification, such as the BCS Practitioner Certificate in Data Protection or an IAPP certification, or willingness to work towards one.
Benefits:
- Annual leave (7.2 weeks)
- Workplace pension scheme.
- Company Sick Pay.
- Statutory maternity and paternity pay.
- Employee Assistance Programme (HA Wisdom Wellbeing)
- Virtual GP access (Livi)
- 'Speak Up Service' - confidential support service to report any workplace concerns
- Specialist physical and mental wellbeing support services with 24/7 confidential counselling support (Wisdom)
- Specialist menopause support, including online CBT (Wisdom)
- Financial, legal and medical advice services provided (Wisdom)
- Life & Leadership coaching (Wisdom)
- Financial coaching (MUNNY)
- Discounts and perks, offering savings on shopping, activities and more (Bright Exchange)
- Career development and training opportunities.
- Training and self-development opportunities.